Four of these listings state that only your group travels: your own car, your own driver-guide and a start time agreed with you. The floor is a hundred and eighty dollars a head against ninety for a shared seat, and what the gap buys is the clock rather than a better farm.
A car, a driver-guide and your own party. Nobody else is collected, nobody else sets the pace, and the departure time is agreed with you rather than published. Four of the listings here state it in those words: only your group participates.
The farm at the other end is often the same farm. What you are buying is the day around it.
You agree it with the operator instead of joining a fixed circuit. On a road where the cloud closes the view from about midday, an earlier start is worth real money.
From your hotel or villa, not a meeting point. If your address is not on the drop-down list, the operator arranges it with you after you book.
Strawberry Hill, Newcastle, a longer hour at Devon House. Ask your driver on the morning rather than at booking, because the answer depends on the road and the cloud that day.
One of these states stroller access and available infant seats, and another allows service animals. That is rare on an unpaved mountain slope.
The driver-guide talks to your party for an hour in each direction, and the reviews name them as often as they name the farm.
The shared morning costs half as much, carries the farm entry inside its fare, and collects on the north coast as well as in Kingston. What it does not give you is the clock. Here is the comparison in full.
Both fares are quoted per person, so a private car does not get cheaper per head as your party grows.
| Private | Shared morning | |
|---|---|---|
| From | From $180 | From $90 |
| Who travels | Only your party | Shared, or a small group |
| Start time | Arranged with the operator | Set by the circuit |
| Collection | Your hotel or villa door | Four named pickup points |
| Farm entry | Inside the fare on one of them | Inside the fare |
| Hours | 2–9, depending which | 4–9 |
| Best for | Families, tight afternoons, adding a stop | Budgets, solo travellers, the north coast |
Check availability — the private Craighton half-day
Every private booking here includes the vehicle, the driver-guide and the tasting at the farm. Three of the four run air-conditioned cars, two carry bottled water and two put Wi-Fi on board.
What you do not get, unless a fare states it, is the estate's gate fee. Craighton charges US$25 for an adult and US$15 for a child aged 6 to 12, and only the cross-island day states that it is covered. Gratuities are outside the fare on all of them, and only one includes any food.
The band is $180 to $275 per person. Durations run from two hours to nine, and the short end is genuinely short: one of these meets in Kingston, gives two hours in the national park and has you back the same morning.
Book two to five days ahead most of the year and a week between December and March. The listings record average lead times of sixteen to thirty-five days. Every one refunds in full up to 24 hours before the start, so an early booking costs you nothing.
Confirm the collection the evening before. The start time on a private booking is arranged rather than published, which is a feature until nobody writes it down.
If you are one or two people counting the cost, take the shared morning. It is ninety dollars, it carries the farm entry, and one traveller records a group of four that had the estate to itself anyway.
If you are staying in Ocho Rios or Runaway Bay, the shared morning is also the only fare that collects you there for ninety dollars. And if what you want is the summit rather than the crop, none of this is for you: Blue Mountain Peak is a night walk from the far side of the range, and no coffee day goes near it.
Nothing here is wheelchair accessible either. The obstacle is the farm slope rather than the vehicle, so a private car does not solve it. Devon House is level ground and already the last stop on several of these days.
Start with the departure town, then the hours you can give it, then the fare. A Blue Mountains Jamaica coffee tour is not a hard booking to get right once those are fixed, and the arithmetic is set out here. Every departure is on Blue Mountain Coffee Tours.
The estate named in its own title. A private car to Craighton above Irish Town, an hour on the working farm with the tasting, and Devon House on the way back into Kingston.
From $180 per person
Two hours at the plantation with a driver-guide who starts talking in the lobby. A lookout over the eastern half of Kingston on the way up, Wi-Fi and air-conditioning in the car.
From $180 per person
The only private day that loads on the north coast, and the only fare that states Craighton's entrance is included. Two hours at the great house, then Strawberry Hill and Devon House.
From $275 per person
The shortest private booking on the mountain. Irish Town and Newcastle for a quarter of an hour each, then two hours in the national park with a plantation tour and a sample from the same hillside.
From $190 per person
Each listing states that only your group participates. Nobody else is collected, the vehicle is yours for the day, and the start time is agreed with the operator rather than fixed by a circuit.
The floor is $180 per person against $90 for the shared morning, and the top is $275. Both are quoted per person, so the gap does not close as your party grows.
On one of them. The cross-island day from the north coast states that Craighton's entrance is inside the fare; on the others, budget US$25 for an adult at the gate — what the estates charge.
You agree it with the operator when you book. Take the earliest your party will tolerate: cloud builds over the ridge from late morning and the view goes first.
Usually. Strawberry Hill and a longer hour at Devon House are the two most often granted. Ask your driver on the morning rather than at booking.
One of them states stroller access and available infant seats, which is unusual here. The farm walk is still an unpaved slope, so a carrier beats a pushchair on the ground itself.
The Kingston booking that meets at a point you choose and gives two hours in the national park. Two to three hours in total, which is the only one that fits a tight window.
Yes. The tasting is under cover and the walk is short. Every booking refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead — what the weather does.